Impossibility Wolf
<-- back to powers Extended Wolf Mentor (5-point) A few weeks after the battle against Qyrl, Zak receives a small, knitted wolf doll attached to a "sleep with me" note. After sleeping while holding the doll, the wolf appears in Zak's dreams and communicates with him. The dreams are incredibly vivid, lifelike, and not very chaotic as far as dreams go. The wolf appears as he did before: Sometimes a wolf, sometimes a small man-like wolf and always with his strangely accurate and almost cartoony-looking way of moving his mouth as he speaks. He explains (in so many words) that he will be teaching Zak about advanced usage of improvised weaponry as well as several other loosely-related skills. The wolf speaks quickly and precisely. His speech is peppered with affirmative questions such as "yes?" and "right?" At first it may seem that he is unsure about most he says, but Zak comes to realize that the uncertainties are mostly near-impossible doomsday scenarios and learns to dismisses them as irrelevant. The ease with which the wolf speaks about seemingly any subject implies that he has a very vast pool of knowledge, and that pool has at least partially opened up to Zak. He can also now be used as a contact if you fall asleep with the doll. This only works in the present time. Cosmology between 5 Academics any 7 (requires a separate power to raise past mortal limit still.) Medicine anatomy 5 Anatomy human 5 Mythic anatomy points 4 Metaphysics improvisational 5 Space-time Master Lore Superdieties 5 Transubstantiation Physics and Ramifications things 4 Improvisational Metaphysics manipulative 5 Paradoxes improvisational 5 Psychonautics non-consensual 5 Interrogation mental states 5 Bioengineering shape-shifting 5 Garou Lore attributes 4 Rokea Lore 3 Corax Lore 3 Mokole Lore 3 Ananasi Lore 3 Bastet Lore 3 Nagah Lore 2 Nuwisha Lore 2 Ratkin Lore 3 Wyrm Lore 3 Wilde Lore 3 Weaver Lore 3 Qwyrl Lore 2 C'et Lore 2 Kun Lore 2 Coyote Lore 2 Raven Lore 2 Spirit Lore physics-affecting 4 Vamipire Lore 3 Dreaming Lore realms 5 Computers networks 4 Intuition obvious 4 Crafts supernatural 5 Artifice Ancient 5 Endurance mental 4 Linguistics 100,000+ speakers 5 Brawl contact 4 Throwing than a breadbox 4 Melee strikes 4 Size-up anatomical 4 Scan objects 4 Investigation searching 4 points for any path related to the device points can be dedicated to buying off mental flaws points can be used for any "wolf" path Due to the nature of the wolf's teaching and communication methods, his study points can be rolled every month, even if you are rolling for another mentor as well. Difficulty 7. Mastery of Improvised Arms (x6) "You've been trained in the art of using your environment to protect yourself. Don't act surprised; I can see it in the way your eyes scan around this room, yes? You seem genetically predisposed to learning the skill quickly as well. Perhaps that will allow you to learn what I have to teach. A skilled armed man can take on an equally skilled unarmed man and win (roughly) 10 times out of 10. I can teach you to always be the armed man." to game masters: Since this path uses the environment, you will have to assign damage on the fly. Always assign realistic damage values, as Zak will have abilities to make them more useful than they seem. If a large hunting knife does str. +1 damage (and it does), a sharp rock probably shouldn't do str. +2. Grabbing ready-made weapons from your environment doesn't count as an improvised weapon. Improvised weaponry is making weapons from your environment and using things that are not usually considered weapons in violent ways. *Practice Makes Perfect "To truly master the supernatural aspect of an activity, one must master the mundane. Those who know this never stop learning. Now we're on a busy street, see? Stop looking at robot in the red dress and pay attention! I want you to slay that business man over there with whatever you can find. Yes yes. . . very nice. I must ask, though, why did you take the time to rip down that tether-ball pole when his briefcase was already in his hands? Speed is important. Accessibility is important. We take what is readily available to us, yes? In time you may find that improvised weapons feel more at home in your hands than a familiar chainsaw-equipped gun, say. The objects we take from the environment are tied to that area. They want to return to a state of rest, and we oblige them by placing them in a more convenient location for ourselves. Now try again. This time go for the ninja-suit guy with the dragon wings. " System: Zak receives bonus dice equal to his Mastery of Improvised Arms path rating to all aiming and damage rolls while using an improvised weapon. This bonus only applies to weapons obtained in the current environment. ** The Reach "Between any two points on the number line (you know, that gross oversimplification us humans made), there exist an infinite amount of other numbers. If you count from one to ten you've passed an infinite amount of numbers infinite times. Most beings don't recognize, though, that space works the same right? Space, in this way, is an illusion. What we perceive as space is merely the gross oversimplification of an entity of infinite complexity. Where do you think the universe was 13.78 billion years ago? It was ending, and a being known to us as the Strong Force was transcending existence to become a true god, an entity that alters existence simply by being present. His genesis is similar to that of Space, the third ascendent and father to the dimensionality you are familiar with. "When you're sitting in the middle of a desert, as we are now, and there's nothing around for miles, what are you to do when someone inevitably tries to kill you? You have no gun, and there's no way you could take this T-rex in a fist fight. You need a weapon. Think hard. You know what's here, what's around you, what's above you, what's below you. Don't be caught off guard by those tiny hands! Space is an illusion. Focus, and you can reach almost anywhere you need to. Grasp a weapon, say that sharp rock 40 feet underground below you. If you can hold onto something far away from you, Space will intervene and correct the inaccuracy. Reach now, and touch the face of a god." System: Zak recieves -3 difficulty to all rolls involving looking for a weapon, and can now sense weapons with intuition even if he cannot see them. Zak may attempt to reach for an environmental weapon by rolling wits + meditation difficulty 10-path rating. One success is equal to 10 feet of "reach." A botch will result in Zak being transported to the item, possibly landing him stuck in a wall or floor. A double botch could leave him transported near the item with a wall or floor stuck in him (lotsa damage). A triple botch will invoke the wrath of Space itself, rending Zak from existence (he will still be able to use the tank to return and will retain his signature items). Zak must attempt an attack with the object he grabbed as soon as he gets it, otherwise he doesn't have it. This action only takes 7- path level dice off of Zak's current action, even if he uses his full pool to roll for it. *** Optimization "Here we are in an office building from your home time. Surprised again? A "friend" of mine tells me your date of creation is written in your genome like a time stamp. All that redundant code put to good use, I guess? Anyway, here we are. Don't be nostalgic! Is that even the right word? Um, yes well anyway. . . werewolves attack! Let's see what you can do with these office supplies. Going for that extinguisher, yes? Freeze. Think about what you're fighting. These are intelligent beasts, I think. Pretty ugly. If they're smart, they'll knock that clumsy thing away from you faster than you can say id. Then it's your hairy knuckles versus theirs, and I wouldn't bet on you in that fight. Let's try something new. "Sometimes what you've got around you just isn't good enough. So what do you do? You make it better, of course! Look at where you are. Now look at me. Now look back at where you are. As you can see, you're now on a boat with a lion. I know you could probably wrestle that sucker down, but humor me for a moment. All you've got is this roll of toilet paper. Perhaps with a fair number of hours you could turn it into a paper whip, but I want you to optimize it, not just craft it. Change the bond angles if you need to. Don't try to tell ME what's impossible! You will find the carbon in plant life turned to diamond, scrap metal sharpened as much as the finest ceramic blade, and oddly-shaped bones balanced as well as fine silver. You will be able to reach into piles of sand and grasp a spear of glass as strong as steel. More relevantly, you will be able to turn this roll of toilet paper into very serviceable whip." System: Zak rolls wits + crafts at difficulty 10-path rating. The number of successes scored determines the quality of the weapon created, and how much say Zak has in its final form. With three successes Zak has basically full control over what he wants it to do. He can choose whether he wants to turn his toilet paper into a garrote wire or whip, his stick into a spear, javelin, or cudgel, etc. At 3 successes the quality of the weapon should exceed that of its normally crafted counterpart. Its difficulty and damage dice should be lowered and raised accordingly. This modification ends when Zak lets go of the weapon or the scene ends. **** Splice Functionality "We have already talked a little about the environment as an entity, but let's revisit that subject. The reality of any given environment settles like sand on the bottom of a glass of water. More poetically, let's say that it settles itself into patterns like this tapestry of a tree that I'm weaving. So far you have learned to pluck an errant thread and make it beautiful. Today we will begin covering methods of weaving so that one day you will be able to craft your own tapestry. To the uncultured eye it won't appear as much, and to the untrained eye it won't appear, yes? You will only have a few threads to work with, so make sure you choose well. "Now if you want to satisfy your technophilia-related urges and save the town, you're going to have to slay this fire-breathing dragon, right? Yes, look there she is, that robot thing you're so attatched to. Do you even really care for her? Maybe it's just some sort of manufactured-being fellowship thing I'm not aware of. Well either way, unless you want to watch the dragon and her going at it. . . Oh very nice find with that club-shaped bone! Now, pluck the threads of those swords on the ground there. Don't worry, I won't yell at you for using a found pre-existing weapon in this case. Weave them into that club. Ah yes! Now you see you have a very viscous-looking spiked club. Look out for that fire breath! Realize that he's just thrown a maw-full of material down for you to work with. Swing that ugly stick you have through the fire. Now you have a real weapon." System: The number of successes Zak rolls for optimization are the number of items that can be implemented into his super-weapon. Swing it through fire to convert that damage into aggrevated and add a couple dice. Combine a hair comb with a sword and you've got a blade-breaking edge. Hold it up to the sun to make it glow, Add a feather to make it nearly weightless (which may be a good or bad thing). Add a chain for disarming or ranged capabilities. The possibilities are endless, but remember that although weapons found in the environment are permitted for this path, weapons found outside of the environment are strictly DISallowed. This level isn't for improving already-made weapons, it's for making super-weapons out of your environment. The splice is a free action if he touch the objects together. If he needs to he can also use the second dot to splice a with a distant object. Let's look at the example from the flavor text above in more mechanical terms. Zak picks up a bone. It does strength damage at difficulty 6. He optimizes with three successes and gets a very large, well-balanced club made of extra strong bone. This will do probably Strength +3 or 4 damage at difficulty 6. He then throws two nearby swords through it as a free action. Each of those swords probably adds +3 damage at least since they're at the end of a pole-arm. Then the dragon breathes fire and he incorporates it into the weapon with his last success. This will convert the damage of his weapon to aggravated and add an additional two damage dice. Since this path is at level 4, Zak gets 4 additional damage dice and aim dice. So now he's holding a club that does strength + 14 aggravated damage per attack with a +4 aim dice bonus. Remember, these effects end if Zak lets go of his weapon or leaves his current environment. ***** Arsenal "You have some very nice kamas going on there. Set down those down and walk over here, yes? No, not on the ground you oaf! They'll do you no good down there. Set them down in the air next to you. Don't tell me what's impossible, you fool!" The wolf, who is getting aggravated at this point, slashes Zak's face from across the room. Zak will later wake up to find a healing wound on his cheek. "Ahem, sorry. Lost my temper. We've been working up to this point for months now. You've learned to obtain and create weapons on the fly, but now you need to learn how to truly put them to use, yes? Put those kama things down in the air next to you. Yes, that's right. Let them rest on the blanket of space-time. There! You did it! That one should follow you. Now make a new weapon. Hmm a stone dagger with acid, fire, and poison. Interesting choice. Set that one in the air as well. See how many you can fit up there. "You will find that it takes a little concentration to keep them up there. You have to think on your feet, right? If you put one up and if feels like you aren't holding it there, chances are you're making something else do the work and pissing it off. Normally this is pretty safe, but you're forcing Gravity to work with Space in this instance, and they hate each other, so stay inside your means! For all our sakes! "Why are we doing this? Oh right of course. I should have told you that before. This level of concentration will allow you to use these weapons simultaneously, even when they're suspended in the air. With a few weapons working with you, There will be nothing that can stand in your way." System: Zak can float any number of weapons next to him that he's created with this path. The safe maximum is his wits, but he can push past that if he chooses. Each time he adds a weapon that would cause the number of actively floating weapons to exceed his wits, he rolls a single dice, difficulty of the number of floating weapons. Success means the weapon floats, failure means he takes one swing of the weapon's damage and it doesn't float (assume 3 strength for the weapon's damage), botch results in another insta-death situation. The maximum difficulty for the roll is 10. Each of the floating weapons attacks with Zak and deals full damage including Zak's strength. He only needs to roll to attack once for all the weapons, and the target's difficulty to dodge is increased by 1 for each weapon he has floating. This effect ends when he leaves his environment or chooses to end it.